Afflicted --]

IV.

It took what seemed like forever for Taeil to manage to get Minhyuk alone so he could interrogate him. He had a nagging feeling that he already knew the answer to his question, but he just wanted to verify his instincts. His curiosity about their relationship was starting to keep him up at night and he needed to clear the air if he wanted to get enough sleep.

If Minhyuk wasn’t hanging out in Yukwon’s room, he could typically found somewhere else in the hospital, usually accompanied by Jaehyo or Yukwon’s parents. He couldn’t corner him at home because all of the other members who were there had hawk ears and would definitely hear their conversation and that wouldn’t do him any good.

Besides the daily group visits, Taeil spent most of his time at the dorm. All of the free time felt a little foreign to him. He kept the dorm clean and occasionally made his way to the practice rooms at the Stardom building to practice singing. For what? He didn’t know, but he couldn’t in good conscience let himself get rusty during their hiatus.

He was at home, aimlessly reading random articles on Wikipedia because he had no idea of anything better to do with himself at the moment. P.O. was playing a video game with Kyung in the living room and the two were keeping up an obnoxious amount of noise. Taeil was mentally prepared for the moment when he would have to answer the door to their severely pissed off neighbors and do some damage control on behalf of the rappers. He was also curious as to how Jaehyo, who rested in the bunk below his, could even sleep through it all.

“I can hear you all the way in the hallway, knock it off!” Zico’s voice shouted. Taeil heard the door slam.

Zico was back from the hospital.

“You guys are so embarrassing, I swear…”

And apparently so was Minhyuk.

Taeil put his lap top to the side and jumped down from his bunk, landing catlike on the floor. Despite the shouting not waking up, the loud thud when Taeil hit the floor was enough to stir Jaehyo from his sleep.

“Did you just fall out of bed?”

Taeil rolled his eyes. “No. Go back to sleep.”

“Everyone to the living room, please!” Zico called. “We need to have a team meeting!”

“… or stay awake,” Taeil quickly corrected himself. He grabbed Jaehyo’s arm, helping him clamber his way out of bed. “Let’s see what he wants.”

Jaehyo mumbled incoherent swears under his breath; another nap ruined, so whatever was going on had to be important or else he would surely flip on everybody.

The oldest members of Block B pushed and shoved each other on their way to the couch before plopping down and staring expectantly at Zico, who stood in front of the muted television set, a frown on his face and his hands stuffed into his jean pockets. Kyung continued to fidget with his video game controller even though the game was paused and P.O. looked around at everyone. He was usually left out of everything and was looking to see if someone else had been clued into something he wasn’t.

“Alright… so… the other day at the hospital I overheard something really concerning and I just wanted to let you guys know what’s going on,” said Zico. “It’s about Yukwon… well, it’s about his whole family really.”

Kyung bit his lip and Minhyuk sat up a little straighter, mentally preparing to rip apart anything else that could be troubling the Kim family.

“Yukwon’s parents are having a hard time financially covering Yukwon’s medical bills.” Zico looked at s.

“… What are we supposed to do?” P.O. finally asked, breaking the silence that suddenly plagued the group.

“It’s not like we’re exactly rolling in cash ourselves,” said Jaehyo. “I swear we’re living off of next to nothing ourselves.”

“The joys of being in a group that doesn’t get paid,” Taeil sighed.

“But we should be getting paid, that’s the thing,” Kyung pointed out. “I haven’t seen a dime from ‘Blockbuster’ yet and I know we had to have made a good profit from it. It’s selling well, the single is selling well, we made so many appearances… it’s bad that between Yukwon’s earnings and his family’s income, they can’t afford his medical bills.”

Minhyuk frowned deeply. “Are you suggesting that we… I don’t know… somehow beg the company to give us our money so we can help pay the bill?”

Kyung shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“Cho PD’s got to understand that this is an emergency,” said Zico. “We didn’t need the money. Hip hop’s not about money. It’s whatever. But keeping Yukwon alive and helping him recover… he wouldn’t be an about it. I just wanted to let you guys in on this before I start making phone calls and setting up meetings, which you guys are more than welcome to come to so you can help me argue our points.”

“Of course we’ll come,” Jaehyo stood up. “We’ll do everything you need us to, right everyone?”

“Right!” The rest of the boys shouted in unison.

Zico gave his group a small smile. “Thanks guys. Thank you so much for sticking together through all of this. Yukwon will be fine soon, we’ll get the money to settle his bills, and we can put this all behind us. If anyone needs me though, I’ll be in my room.”

“Our room,” Jaehyo corrected, a cheeky grin on his face.

“You’re such a mood killer!” Kyung shouted.

“On that note, meeting adjourned,” said P.O. “Take the game off pause so I can continue kicking your , hyung.”

“You must be looking at the wrong side of the screen again, P.O.,” Kyung retorted. “I’m clearly winning by a landslide right now.”

All of the commotion of the dorm returned as suddenly as it had disappeared. The group had quickly learned that dwelling on the negativity wasn’t a healthy way to deal with the problem and kept up as much normalcy as they could.

Taeil watched Kyung and P.O. hoot and holler while playing some two-person shooter game for a while before he noticed Minhyuk get back up and head for the door.

“Hey, tell Zico I’ll be back soon,” Taeil said to Kyung.

“Eat lead, pig!” Kyung shouted.

Secretly, Taeil was pretty happy that Kyung wasn’t paying attention to him.

He slipped out the door not even a minute after Minhyuk and trailed behind him a little way. He had to gather up the courage to ask his question. He didn’t even know how to phrase it. Should he bluntly ask if he w as gay? Should he just ask if he was found Yukwon attractive? Was there a more round-about way to ask?

He frowned, lost in his thoughts as he followed Minhyuk. He didn’t even notice that the boy’s destination wasn’t the hospital as expected. Instead, it was another apartment building. Taeil blinked, confused by their location before remembering that he had been there before.

Minhyuk was going to pay a visit to the Kim family.

Taeil debated following him in. He didn’t want to seem like he was stalking him and creeping into his private life (well, as much of his life as he could keep private when he lived with six other guys). But he curiosity got the better of him. He watched Minhyuk take the elevator to the sixth floor and Taeil decided to sprint up the stairs to catch him.

He was nearly winded by the fifth floor but pushed on, not wanting to miss anything. He opened the door quietly and smiled when he saw Minhyuk standing in front of one of the apartments. He gasped when he saw Minhyuk was swiftly scribbling out a check.

Minhyuk stopped when he heard Taeil and glared at him. “You following me?”

“Sorry, I thought we were going to the hospital?” Taeil’s attempt at lying was pathetic to say the least.

“Well, at least stop looking creepy and come over here,” said Minhyuk.

“Sure… sorry,” Taeil apologized again. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m giving this to Yukwon’s parents,” Minhyuk answered. He tore the check from the book and held it up for Taeil to scrutinize.

Taeil whistled, appreciatively when he saw how much the check was for. Minhyuk was giving the Kims about 11 million won (~$10,000).

Minhyuk smirked at Taeil’s reaction before turning and ringing the doorbell.

“Where’s that money from?” Taeil asked.

“College savings,” Minhyuk replied with a shrug. “I deferred… so… I don’t know. I’d rather Yukwon have this than me. I can find another way to pay for school later.”

“You can’t just blow your entire college savings like this!” Taeil protested. “Give him some but save some for yourself. You don’t have time for another job and we’re practically making minimum wage.”

“Just stay out of it, Taeil,” Minhyuk snapped. “It’s my money, my decision, okay?”

“You love him, don’t you?” Taeil blurted without even thinking. He squeaked, surprised with himself, and covered his mouth with his hands. His eyes wide with fear since he didn’t know how Minhyuk would take it.

Minhyuk looked a little scared too. The two stood their awkwardly until Mr. Kim finally opened the door.

“Oh, hi boys,” he said. The older man who was almost the spitting image of his son looked exhausted with bags under his eyes and his hair and clothes a little dishelved.

“Uh… hi,” Taeil stuttered. Both Block B members bowed deeply.

“Mr. Kim… I just… I overheard that you and Mrs. Kim were having financially troubles due to Yukwon’s hospitalization and I just wanted to offer this to help with the bills.” Minhyuk spoke a mile a minute, nervous from Taeil’s previous accusation and because he was handing money to a grown man he wasn’t even related to.

Mr. Kim took the check and glanced at it, wearily. “Minhyuk-ah, we don’t need your money. Thank you, but we can’t accept this. You’re doing so much for Yukwon as it is. We just can’t…”

“I will be severely offended if you don’t accept and use this money,” Minhyuk said sternly. “Please.”

“Minhyuk, no.”

“I don’t even need this,” Minhyuk lied. “I want it to go to something important and making sure Yukwon is healthy and recovering is the most important thing to me. Please accept this money because I’m not leaving here until you do.”

“God, you’re a stubborn one…” Mr. Kim sighed. “I’ll take your check. But I’ll have to speak to my wife about using it, okay? But thank you for the kind gesture.”

“If you don’t use the check, next time I’m coming with cash so you can’t tear it up and leave it unused.” Minhyuk bowed. “Please take care of yourselves.”

“You take care,” said Mr. Kim. “Stop sleeping at that damn hospital. Your back must be yelling at you right about now. I’m going to take a nap… I’m working the graveyard shift tonight at work. But I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye Mr. Kim,” Minhyuk and Taeil chorused as the man closed his door.

Minhyuk didn’t even speak to Taeil before taking off down the hall towards the elevator. Taeil sat there, stunned for a moment by the exchange that he had just witnessed before realize he was about to get himself left behind.

“Minhyuk, wait!” He screamed, jogging after him.

He frowned when the dancer didn’t say a word to him as they both got in the elevator and made their painfully slow way down to the ground floor.

“Minhyuk, I’m sorry,” Taeil attempted to break the ice as they left the apartment building, back on the streets of Seoul. “Just… don’t ignore please?”

“Why would ask me a question like that?” Minhyuk suddenly turned and rounded on him. In his anger, he seemed to tower well over the short singer.

“I just… I couldn’t stop myself,” Taeil answered, nervously. “I’ve just been noticing things… the way you hate leaving Yukwon’s side, the way you hold his hand tightly, the fact that you just gave his parents all of your college money. I just wondered… if it was because you loved Yukwon.”

Minhyuk searched Taeil’s eyes for signs of malicious intent. He never wanted to confess to his group mates. It’s not like homouality was greatly appreciated in South Korea and sure as hell wasn’t cool, in any context, to have feelings for someone you work so closely with. It had the potential to make things messy for the whole group, not just the two people involved.

“I don’t care if you are,” said Taeil. “I’m not one to judge anybody. I was just curious… you don’t even have to tell me. If you do, I won’t tell anybody else. I swear.”

Minhyuk couldn’t take it anymore. He trusted Taeil’s words and quickly flug his arms around the singer and, must to his simultaneous embarrassment and relief, began to sob openly.

Taeil was stunned, but still managed to return Minhyuk’s shaky embrace. He pulled Minhyuk to the curb of the sidewalk and the two seemingly collapsed down. Taeil held his friend tightly, encouraging him to let it all out. It was really the first time he’d seen Minhyuk cry over all of this.

“God, I’m so ing scared and ing stressed out,” Minhyuk seemingly choked on his words as he spoke. “Yukwon didn’t deserve this. He’s so nice and perfect. He’s my everything. I want to ing kill that guy.”

“I know,” Taeil replied, his voice low as Minhyuk continued to weep hysterically. People walking by stared at the odd scene, so Taeil did his best to cover Minhyuk’s face with his arms.

“I do,” Minhyuk continued. “I do love him. I don’t know what to do.”

Taeil sighed. He held back his own tears because he needed to be strong for the other boy in that moment.